This anthology of seminal texts documents the development of the post-war anti-Soviet Ukrainian
dissident movement. The collection is designed to introduce via some crucial primary sources
Western and other non-Ukrainian readers to various forms of Ukrainian opposition to the
communist regime. Stories of ideas and personal undertakings are unfolding before the reader in
a vivid pulsation of texts that testify for themselves. The anthology gathers contributions
from different genres. They range from poetry public speeches and samvydav-uncensored
self-published-texts to court speeches. They come from dissidents who were held in jails
special psychiatric hospitals (for not accepting the official ideology) and prison camps.
Finally they include self-reflections by dissidents on their personal experience of opposing
the totalitarian system. This variety of contributions creates a multidimensional picture of
the Ukrainian dissident movement-a generation of prominent Ukrainian public and cultural
figures who in one way or another insisted on their freedom of speech and made history by
daring to challenge the official ideology and culture. This remarkable book about the struggle
for freedom has been compiled by Oleksii Sinchenko Dmytro Stus and Leonid Finberg. Scholarly
reviewed by Myroslav Marynovych.
